Long Unseen John Cassavetes, Gena Rowlands and John Voight Pictures Surface
Canon opens a pop-up gallery to show Steve Reisch’s Cassavetes Project. The crowds come out to see.
Friday night in Hollywood is a zoo; people, parking, traffic, everything you can imagine that might make it an effort is happeaning. So getting to the opening ofSteve Reisch’s “The Cassavetes Project”, pictures unseen since he made them back in 1981 is an uphill battle. Fortunately it’s worth it.
Steve Reisch is not a household name. Chances are you haven’t seen his work. But he has spent a lifetime making good pictures and a living at and he loves making pictures.
When I asked him “a hundred years from now if all but one of these pictures are destroyed, which one do you want to be here, which one matters most?” His answer, “This one, John (Cassavetes) looking at Peter Falk. To me it shows the intensity and the focus he brought to his work in every moment”. Good answer. Not about I did this or I saw that but look at this guy, look at the subject, not at the photographer. I like that.
I like the way these pictures came to be too. In 1981 John Cassavetes was embarking on a bold experiment, a cycle of theatre called “Three Plays of Love and Hate”. They starred Gena Rowlands, Jon Voight and Peter Falk and he was financing them out of his own pocket. Reisch waited in the lobby of the theatre until Cassavetes walked by then stopped him and proposed that he be allowed to come every day and make a record of the rehearsals. Cassavetes looked him up and down for a minute then said “Be here tomorrow morning at 9AM”…and he was in. He spent months acting (he was given a role in one of the plays), observing and shooting. When the plays opened the pictures hung in the lobby and then when the plays were over the pictures sat…for thirty-four years.
Now through a series of twists and turns they are hanging again and in a brand new space, the Canon Professional Technology Center in Hollywood. The pros all know this place – it’s where you go to get support for your high end Canon still and moving image cameras and printers but until last night it had never been a showcase for photography. Hopefully that’s about to change. Although I couldn’t confirm if this is a pop-up, a onetime thing, or the beginning of a regular program I can tell you that the pros who were there last night would welcome another place to show photography in Los Angeles. My fingers are crossed.
The Cassavetes Project
The Canon Technology Center
6060 Sunset Blvd, Los Angeles, CA
Open Monday to Friday, 10AM to 4PM, until November 20th
Written by Andy Romanoff
Email – Andyromanoff+loeil.gmail.com
Website – andyromanoff.com
